The Unexceptional Ant-Man!
by Seikan no Sozo-ryoku
Summary: Joe Weaver is your average guy... who's just had a really crappy life. One day fate strikes in the form of an illegal Ant-Man suit. After that well let's just say he's not up to your usual heroics. And with 3 organizations hot on his trail, you know things are bound to get interesting! Reviews are appreciated!
1. Origin Story Part I

_The Unexceptional Ant-Man!_

_Origin Story Part I_

It was a rather fishy place to be having a meeting but then again they were up to some fishy business. The place in question was the New York City Harbor; it was a good idea on their part to be having the meeting here: there were many cargo ships and they had disguised theirs to look unremarkable. But as with many things, the real purpose was on the inside.

There were perhaps 30 of them. All of them wore green uniforms with two yellow stripes parallel of each other. A yellow _H_ was stamped on one of the stripes and they all wore helmets with a red insignia. A skull on top of a pair of tentacles, Hydra. Add to that the rather heavy weapons they were all carrying and you had a force that might be enough to take down the dock. But they weren't here for that; tonight's business was a bit more… deadly.

The soldiers were busy at work carrying boxes to the middle of the large storage room they were all currently in. The boxes all had Hydra logos on them and looked as if they hid something dangerous on the inside. 2 Hydra soldiers were carrying a particularly heavy box.

"What do you suppose is in this box anyhow?" asked one of the soldiers. His name was Rupert; he was struggling to carry the box what with his rifle slung across his back. The other guy shrugged.

"I don't know, maybe some sort of crazy weapon of mass destruction that would kill us all in an instant?" he said. This soldier's name was Todd (more on both of these men later).

"Oh," said Rupert. He carried the box a bit more carefully now. A few minutes later they were finished setting up the boxes and they all stood in formation. Their commander stood in front of them quite seriously.

"As you all know, we are here for an exchange. We have a buyer who will give us valuable information in exchange for this cargo." He gestured to the boxes as he said the last few words. Rupert whispered to Todd, who was right next to him:

"That buyer must have some good info…"

Todd agreed. There were almost 30 boxes in the center of the room. Every single one of them probably had something dangerous that would give even S.H.I.E.L.D a run for their money. Their buyer would become the most dangerous person in New York after this deal. Well that is if the deal went alright…

"We must show strength! Give an aura of power and fear; stand tall with your weapons out, armed and ready. If all goes well then the _Red Skull_ will surely praise you. Hail Hydra!" shouted the commander.

"Hail Hydra!" the soldiers shouted back. Todd noticed that Rupert shouted it enthusiastically. Rupert may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but one could always count on him to yell 'Hail Hydra' the loudest.

A Hydra soldier burst into the room, clearly he had been running. Every head shifted toward him, the Commander looked at him inquiringly.

"The buyer, he's here!" said the soldier. The rest of the soldiers in the room shifted back to their regular formation. The Commander stood menacingly over the group, anticipation hung in the air as everyone awaited the arrival of the buyer.

They heard him before they saw him. His footsteps could be heard clanging on the metal flooring, and then he stepped into the room.

"Good Lord, he's _fat_," thought Todd.

Todd wasn't the only one who was having such thoughts. Everyone in the room marveled at the man's incredible obesity. He was tall, Todd estimated him to stand at approximately 7 or 8 feet. He wore no hair on his head, the room lights reflected on the baldness of the dome of his head. And then there was there his _body_. There was fat emanating from almost everywhere, his legs, torso, arms, hands, face, the only part of him that didn't seem fat at all were the small beady eyes that darted around the whole room. The mystery of who the buyer was disappeared almost instantly, for everyone in the criminal underworld knew who this man was. It was as clear as the white suit he wore.

"Wilson Fisk, the _Kingpin_," said the Commander. Kingpin bowed and Todd noticed for the first time that there were 4 armored men with military shotguns and assault rifles standing near the Kingpin. The Commander noticed as well.

"What is the meaning of-"he was interrupted by an almost nonchalant wave of the Kingpin's hand.

"_Relax_," Kingpin spoke calmly," They are simply here for my protection, I do not think they shall get in the way of our,ah, _dealings_ shall we say?"

The Commander grunted," Very well. Do you have the information that you say you have?"

Kingpin chuckled, "Of course, I have it right here…" Kingpin reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a silver hard drive. He handed it over to the Commander. The Commander took out a small rectangular device and scanned the hard drive. A small screen on the device read "100% Match."

The Commander allowed himself a small smile and turned his head back toward the Kingpin, "Well everything seems in order."

The Commander turned towards the Hydra soldiers (who were still in formation.)

"Alright, start unloading the cargo into Kingpin's vehicle."

Rupert let out a small groan.

"Ya know, if we were gonna just move the boxes a second time then we should have just stacked them closer to the exit door," said Rupert. Todd and he were struggling to carry the boxes up the flight of stairs and into the Kingpin's getaway vehicle (which was disguised as a _Stark Industries_ 18 wheeler trailer.)

"Ah just shut up and do it," said Todd. He groaned as he heaved the box up the last flight of stairs and out of the ship. Now they could see the sea and the New York skyline behind them. It was a beautiful sight. With one last pull they lifted the box into the trailer and they adjusted it into place. Some other boxes had already been stacked into place.

"Phew, 20 boxes down, 10 to go," said Rupert. Other soldiers behind them were also carrying boxes and they all seemed to be struggling as well.

"Come on you two, only one left down there." Said a soldier.

Todd and Rupert went down into the ship again and saw a single box lying in the cargo room. The Commander was sitting on a chair examining the hard drive, he looked up and noticed Todd and Rupert. "Well at are you waiting for knuckleheads? Go take it up."

Todd and Rupert did as they were told.

This package was just as heavy as the other ones, sweat poured down Todd's face. After much swearing and ragged breathing they got up the flights of stairs and out of the ship.

"Crap…" Rupert gasped for air, "They don't pay us enough for this…"

"Come on we still have to get it into the trailer," said Todd through heavy breathing. The other Hydra soldiers were still packing the boxes. Kingpin and his bodyguards watched their work from a distance, no doubt feeling superiority.

"Come on, we'll lift it on three. Ready? One, two, three-" a blinding flash of light appeared out of nowhere. It was a searchlight and it was coming from above them. It was a sort of aircraft that was hovering above them. Men and women in tight blue and white suits were climbing down on ropes. The suits were similar to the Hydra ones except their suits had an eagle stamped on the chest.

"_SHIELD_…" mouthed Todd. Around them the entire dock burst into chaos, the Hydra soldiers dropped the packages and took out their weaponry and started firing. Kingpin was outraged and yelled, "No you imbeciles! Keep loading the boxes!"

"_This is SHIELD! We have you outnumbered and the dock is sealed! Put down your weapons and surrender!" _barked a voice from the craft's speakers. It was clear that SHIELD would win the fight, they had them outnumbered and were more experienced. Yellow and blue blasts of energy flew on both sides.

"Shit, what do we do?!" yelled Rupert. Todd and he were running from the fight, not knowing that they were still carrying the package.

"Let's join the fight!" said Todd.

"Are you kidding?! I've never even _fired_ one of these before," said Rupert, motioning to his energy rifle. The fight was still raging on behind them.

"Alright alright, let's hide!"

"Where?"

Todd scanned the area around them looking for a hiding spot. Then he saw one, a small wooden canoe at the end of the dock covered by a red tarp.

"There!" Todd and Rupert started running over to the canoe but Rupert stopped.

"Wait what do we do with this?" he gestured to the box.

"We have to get rid of evidence that we're Hydra, just chuck it into the sea!" said Todd. They heaved and tossed the box out into sea, it crashed into the sea and sunk below the water.

"Alright get in the canoe, come on!" said Todd. The two got into the canoe and placed the tarp above them. The firefight was almost over with most of the Hydra soldiers having been defeated. Kingpin swore and got into the trailer with his men. They drove away, unnoticed by the SHIELD agents. The Hydra Commander knew fully well what was happening and he got into a secret submarine like pod and escaped the scene, the hard drive safely in his hand.

And further away the Hydra box was floating amidst the waves towards shore.


	2. Origin Story Part II

_The Unexceptional Ant-Man!_

_Origin Story Part II_

And this, my dear friends, is where our main character makes his entrance.

Joe Weaver awoke to the sounds of cars honking and the rush of people outside. He pushed his window curtain to the side and squinted his eyes. The sunlight almost blinded him at first but his sight adjusted. He saw the city that never slept already on the verge of a new day; its citizens already dressed and ready to get on with their day.

He got out of his bed and immediately heard something clatter and roll across the floor. He looked down at his feet and saw an empty beer bottle rolling aimlessly. He picked it up and saw that there was still small drop of the liquid at the bottom. He drank it.

To say that Weaver had no purpose in life would be wrong. The correct answer was that he couldn't _find_ a purpose to his life. Ever since _that day_ his life had been an incomprehensible slur of beer, television, sleep and thoughts of what to do with his life. In truth, Joe Weaver had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

He stepped into the shower and turned it on. It came out ice cold and he jumped backwards. He had forgotten that it usually took good 5 minutes for the warm water to come. Side effects of being hungover.

After spending a good 30 minutes in the shower, Joe turned it off and grabbed a towel to cover himself in. The digital clock on his drawer read 9:42 A.M. Almost time for work. Weaver examined himself on a wall mirror as he dried himself. He was unnaturally skinny and unnaturally short for his age (he was 31 and his height stood in at 5'5). His hair was brown and was always plastered down on his head, never standing out. Joe also had a beard that looked quite rough which gave him the look of an angry short man.

Not that he would have denied that's how he really was of course.

He opened his closet, which was almost depressingly empty of clothes, and pulled out his blue dock worker uniform. It was dirty and smelled in some places (he had never bothered to fix the smell and rarely washed the uniform). After getting dressed he excited his apartment and locked it tightly.

"Leaving so quickly, Joe?" asked an elderly woman's voice. Joe turned around and saw his elderly neighbor, Mrs. Ada. She and her husband had lived at these apartments since their founding in the late 1970s. Joe had never met her husband, he had died 5 years before he had moved in. Joe thought nice things of Mrs. Ada. They repeatedly visited each other's apartments and had pleasant talks over the state of their lives and the state of the country (politics, economy, superheroes, etc.)

Lately though the visits had stopped. Mrs. Ada was a very sharp woman and she noticed that Joe had changed ever since _that_ had happened.

Joe attempted to smile but it came off as an unsure frown.

"Yes Mrs. Ada, you know, duty calls." He pointed to the dock logo on his chest. Mrs. Ada nodded at the logo but she tightened her nose, the odor coming from it was quite repulsive.

"I don't suppose you might come around later? I have a nice casserole I'm going to make," smiled Mrs. Ada.

"Well…" Joe thought about what he would be doing later that afternoon but then he realized that the schedule for each of his days was empty.

"Alright, a casserole sounds like a nice change of food," said Joe. It certainly was a change; the only thing that he had been eating for a few weeks was fast food and beer.

"Splendid! I look forward to your visit," she said.

"Have a nice day Mrs. Ada," he turned and started to walk down the stairs to the front door.

"You too, oh and Joe, one last thing?" Joe stopped on the last step and looked up at her. She was entering her apartment as she spoke.

"Do try to smile more, it helps." She closed the door to her apartment. Joe watched the number on it, 3, (he lived in apartment 4).

"I'll try," he said in barely more than a whisper. He opened the door and went out. Mrs. Ada watched him leave from her window.

"God help that man."

Joe lived in some cheap 2 story apartments in Hell's Kitchen named the York Crossing Apartments. It was obviously a dangerous place to live in, what with the crime activity and the rumors of a masked red skinned man who ran around the place at night, but it was simply the _only_ place he could afford to live in. As he walked outside he received the usual looks that the people who lived in that neighborhood gave each other, looks of caution.

He thought about his conversation with Mrs. Ada, '_do try to smile more_' she had said. When Joe had first moved into the apartments a few years back, Mrs. Ada had been the first, and only, neighbor to introduce herself to Joe. They shared the story of their lives over a blueberry pie she had baked. Mrs. Ada used to work in New Jersey as a cashier for a sandwich shop. She then met her future husband while working there and after getting married they moved to New York for better jobs and a new lifestyle.

Joe had never gotten the pleasure of knowing Mr. Ada though. He was killed in a mugging 5 years before Joe moved into the apartments. The killer had never been found and Mrs. Ada didn't often talk about the event. But when she did talk about her husband her eyes light up and her words were filled with energy. Joe often wished he could exact justice on the killer and ease Mrs. Ada's pain. But of course though he couldn't, he wasn't a _superhero_…

It took him at least an hour to arrive at the docks (he traveled by subway). Something was a bit off today; there were some news van at the area filming and some police officers forming a barricade. Joe walked up to them.

"Excuse me I work here, what happened?"

A gruff looking police officer responded, "There was a shootout here last night, _SHIELD_ is taking care of things."

"SHIELD?" Joe's face went a bit slack. Everyone knew about SHIELD of course but he didn't think he'd ever be associated with them or meet them. Now that the officer mentioned it he did see a few people garbed in white and blue patrolling the docks with large nets, as though they were searching for something.

"Your fellow employees are gathered by that crane over there." Said the officer. Joe looked and saw the workers standing in a large group by a crane. He jogged over there. He catched a few words of their conversations.

"Yes I said SHIELD!"

"A shootout?"

"Yeah some kind of drug deal or something,"

"You think we should demand for extra pay for working conditions?"

Joe wanted to ask his workers for more information about the incident but he didn't due to fear. He didn't know a single co-worker there who liked him so he just decided to stand quietly. Eventually they saw their boss, Paul, walking towards them. He looked furious, but that wasn't unusual since it looked like he wanted to yell at someone half of the time. The employees all turned to Paul expectanctly. He stood fuming and crossed his arms.

"As I'm sure you're aware, there was some sort of _shootout_ here yesterday night," his eye twitched as he talked. Paul was your stereotypical angry boss who loved to rant at anything and anyone (and it just so happened that Joe was his number 1 victim.)

"These…agents… tell me that they've got it all covered," his face reddened, "But they're planning on _closing_ the docks for a whole week just so they can investigate!"

He spat out the words and now looked like a tomato. The workers had seen Paul like this more than once.

"Do you know how much money we'll lose!? Close down the docks my a**! And just who the h*** was on night duty last night?!" he shouted at them, "If they had been doing their job _correctly_ then they would have seen this nonsense and they could have called the police! Do you know how much money in damages happened because of yesterday?! I swear I fill find the slacker who didn't do his job and _fire_ the b****!"

Joe's face paled. He was in fact the guy who was supposed to have been on night duty yesterday but the call of beer from home had made him leave early.

If Paul found out that it was him… he would be fired. Joe couldn't afford to lose his job. If he lost the job then he'd lose his income, then he'd lose his apartment… then he'd have to go to the streets.

"Now I can't afford to not do anything for the whole week so we're pretending that SHIELD isn't even here. It's back to work people! Gordon and Matt, I want you guys to keep unloading crates but don't let SHIELD notice."

Paul barked orders at everyone and they grudgingly went to do what he said. The workers were like Joe, just doing what they could to earn a living.

"And Weaver!" Joe looked at Paul.

"Something's plugging up one of the sewer drains, go fix it." he ordered.

Of course he'd give Joe that job. Whenever a sewer drain got clogged Joe was always sent to go fix it. No one else had ever been sent to go fix it as far as he knew. And whenever he did fix it his clothes got extremely pungent and dirty.

'Well I don't wash them anyways…' thought Joe. He walked off towards the drain.

Perhaps if he did his job quickly then Paul would show gratitude to him. Maybe if he found out about how Joe was the one on night duty then he'd give him a second chance. He doubted it though, he was always leaving work early.

He arrived at the sewer drain. Less water than usual was exiting it. The drain smelled foul and there was garbage floating around everywhere. Joe walked into the drain on a small sidewalk. He could see the metal bars where the water came from just a few feet ahead.

There was something clogging the bars, some sort of black box covering the drain. Joe figured that it was a heavy box since it was half sunk and not moving with the current of the water. Well time to get messy he thought.

He bent over and tried to pull the box out of the water but he couldn't. It was heavy.

"What is this?" he thought aloud. He tried to pull it up again but he barely moved it, the box was wet and it kept slipping.

"Okay then… on 3." He said. He grabbed hold of the box and counted to 3 mentally,

1…2…3. With all of his might he pulled the box up. He heard some of his back joints snap like when someone cracked their knuckles. He got up and stared at the strange black box.

A skull and tentacle logo at the top of it stared back.


	3. 3 Angry Men

_The Unexceptional Ant-Man!_

_3 Angry Men_

The Commander kept patting his coat pocket to make sure that the hard drive was there. A cold metal lump reassured him that the drive was still there. He allowed himself a smile. The deal may not have been very successful for the others but Hydra had gotten what they wanted: the hard drive.

He did not question how the Kingpin had gotten the hard drive, nor did he care. He walked down a metallic hallway. He was in a nearby Hydra base disguised as a regular warehouse on his way to turn in the hard drive.

He came to the room in which he was due to be in. 2 Hydra soldiers flanked the door. They had heavier armor and larger weapons, they had more experience in fighting. The soldiers brought their hands to their foreheads.

"Hail Hydra!" they cried out. The Commander did the same.

"Hail Hydra."

The soldiers stood back from the door and it opened by itself. Like something out of _Star Trek_. The Commander walked in.

It was a large war like room. A holographic globe was floating in the center of the room, it pinpointed locations of interest. The Commander could see the Avengers Mansion, the nation of Wakanda, Atlantis, the Baxter Building, Latveria and many others. It seemed that only the SHIELD helicarrier wasn't on the map. There were large supercomputers spread all around and Hydra scientists slaved over them.

The Commander felt a bead of sweat running down his neck. He had acquired the hard drive as he had told his superior he would but he did not mention how he would acquire it. In the end he ended up trading what he thought was useless inventory for the drive. The Commander had made sure that the boxes contained only sub-standard Hydra energy weapons and nothing more than that…

He should have felt pride for this victory but why did he feel fear?

Large footsteps clanked towards the Commander. He knew who it was before even seeing him.

"_Commander_," spoke the voice in a thick German accent. When he had first seen him the Commander was shocked at how grotesque he was but now he was slightly more used to the sight of a large robotic body with a human head as a computer screen in the middle and a large laser weapon sticking out in where the head would normally be. _Arnim Zola_, head scientist and information gatherer of Hydra. The Commander saluted Zola, Zola did not salute back.

"Straight to the point, Commander. Have you gotten the hard drive?" asked Zola, he stretched out the –er in Commander whenever he said it. The moment had finally arrived. The Commander took the hard drive carefully out of his pocket and handed it to Zola.

Zola smiled. His smile was horrific and did not comfort the Commander. Zola grabbed the drive.

"Excellent, Commander. This is a great victory for Hydra…" a compartment opened in Zola's arm and he placed the drive in it.

"Commander I promise you that you will be promoted and heavily rewarded for your actions. I would not be surprised if the _Red Skull_ himself would want to congratulate you." Spoke Zola. The Commander nodded but his fears were not quelled. In fact at the utter of Red Skull's name, his fears had grown.

"If I may ask, what is in the hard drive?" asked the Commander. Zola raised his eyebrow as though suspicious.

"The next step in our fight against SHIELD. This will be the key to their downfall. And it is all thanks to you Commander."

Zola turned to leave but he stopped and slowly turned around.

"How did you get the drive in your hands, Commander? I don't suppose that the Kingpin just gave it to you."

The Commander's heart beated rapidly, his eyes darted around wildly. He had to lie his way out of this of course, it would be safer than telling the truth and risking death.

"Well I…" he thought of a lie, it took him perhaps a millisecond to come up with one, "I took soldiers with me and we attacked his home. It was easy to extract the drive and that is how I got it." He answered quickly.

Zola laughed. The Commander's heart was beating so fast that he thought it was the sound of drums.

"You are lying Commander. I can see it in your eyes." Zola walked closer towards him. Every person in the room watched from the corner of their eyes. The Commander muttered a few words of denial but he was sweating profusely.

"Did you really think no one would know about the trade? Dealing Hydra inventory… that doesn't sound good," he said menacingly. The Commander walked a few steps backwards. He knew what was coming next, Zola's laser beam started charging with energy. The Commander covered his face and waited for the pain.

But none came. Zola's beam died down.

"I will not kill you. You are still in my favor for retrieving the drive." He suddenly grabbed the Commander by the throat. The Commander choked and his face turned blue, he could feel the life slipping out of him.

"You have 2 months to get everything back," he threatened, "After that, the Skull will deal with you personally."

He dropped the Commander like a ragdoll, he gasped for breath and slowly got back up.

"Understand?" asked Zola. The Commander straightened himself.

"Yes…Zola."

"Hail Hydra."

"Hail Hydra."

The Kingpin had spent the last day opening the crates. His men and special scientists had examined the Hydra weapons in the crates, he got angrier with every box opened.

"Useless…useless…useless!" he yelled. He flung one of the energy weapons at the wall. It cracked the wooden wall and it fell on the floor, broken in half. This pissed him off even more. He grabbed the broken gun and smashed it into tinier pieces by smashing his foot on it.

"Cheap weapons too! They screwed me over!" he yelled. His men watched in uncertain fright at the Kingpin's rage. He was known to be unrational and not open to clear thought when he was mad. He kept smashing the gun, veins bobbing in his forehead until the wreckage did not resemble a gun anymore. He walked back and forth, deep in thought apparently. He announced his thoughts out loud.

"Right… so Hydra has the drive now… no way we'll ever get it back, they have operations and branches larger than ours… And we have crappy guns…" he muttered. He sat down on a leather chair and stroked his many chins. Everyone in the room watched.

"What do we do, boss?" asked a guy carelessly. Kingpin kept thinking. He grabbed a glass bottle of scotch on the table next to him and drank from it. After a long drink he wiped his mouth and threw the bottle. Shattering glass was heard in the distance.

"We hit Hydra back, and we make it hurt."

The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier hovered across the sky, undetectable by any form of radar. Agents walked around patrolling the carrier. Maria Hill was standing on the bridge of the carrier overlooking the clear skies in front of her. Being second in command was taking its toll on her, at moments in peace she constantly seemed tired and the occasional streak of gray could be seen in her brown hair.

But she enjoyed her job even at the cost of the hardships it brought here. She would take it over a white collar desk job any day, even in the direst of situations.

She held a tablet which contained the latest information the Hydra-Kingpin deal that had happened merely a day ago. So far all that they knew was that Kingpin had traded over some dangerous piece of intel in exchange for sub-standard weapons. Her mind turned over to the Hydra soldiers they had captured. They were interrogating all of them but none had spilled any information as to what was in the drive.

Something big was happening and S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know what it was and she didn't like it one bit.


End file.
